Mass-Observers at the ‘atomic crossroads’

Abstract

ABSTRACT In February 1947, a Directive issued by the social investigative organisation, Mass Observation, asked its panel of volunteer writers to record their responses to the question: ‘What are your feelings about the atom-bomb?’. As was common practice for Directive Questionnaires, this was a repeat question that had first been asked in the immediate aftermath of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. This article examines how changes to the contextual underpinnings of nuclearity in the 18 months since Mass-Observers first recorded their feelings about the atom bomb influenced perceptions of nuclear danger, and whether the accumulation of greater knowledge about the atom bomb affected the types of feelings that were registered in Directive replies. It argues that the changing international environment was a source of acute nuclear anxiety for Mass-Observers, and that exposure to official and unofficial narratives of the atom bomb was received subjectively as more anxiety provoking. It concludes that the writings of many Mass-Observers displayed signs of ‘psychic numbing’ as a conscious or unconscious psychological defence mechanism against feelings of nuclear anxiety.